Northern area customers have had artificially lower fares for years as a form of social subsidy, on top of subsidy payments generally to all the TOCs who have run the Northernrailway. The Northern area has also had old trains and low investment in infrastructure. If the North gets new trains, why shouldn’t it get the DOO method of operation widespread in ‘the South’ from a cost perspective?
Northern’s new trains should make a big difference to attract customers. If Northern manage to move some of the guards to stations jobs once the dispute concludes, the station environments could become much more welcoming and feel safer, which should also increase customers. DOO is simply the unappealing part of the total Northern franchise investment package that otherwise everyone, including the RMT, has been demanding for years.
There hasn’t been any change to Arriva carrying through their contract which is to run at least 50% if the Northern trains with only the driver having any operational involvement (DOO) or requirement to be there for the train to move. The Greater Anglia arrangement means drivers open and close the doors with the guard being able to close them in exceptional circumstances. However only a small part of the Greater Anglia network has guards and those that do mostly operate on branch lines. The ‘deal’ allows Greater Anglia to run without a guard from Liverpool Street on mainline intercity trains when they cannot currently, which is surely something that will make a major performance benefit to the operator.
